Ridley Scott Says Alien: Covenant Will Have a ‘Pretty Hard R’ Rating

Work is already underway on Ridley Scott’s upcoming return to the world of Alien. Following a Golden Globe (Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical) win for his The Martian, Scott is off to Australia to begin production on the upcoming Alien: Covenant. Speaking backstage, Scott revealed a few details about his plans for the picture, including the fact that he’s shooting for “a pretty hard R” rating. He even teases that he’s got something “much worse” than the iconic chestbuster scene in store.

“I always remember walking down the edge in Saint Louis when we were previewing [Alien],” Scott recalls. “I couldn’t sit through the film one more time. I walked down the edge into the kitchen scene when John Hurt started to bring up his breakfast. That moment, I realized how pretty scary the film was… I felt a sense of responsibility that I had gone too far because it was extreme. I’m going to try and do that again this year, but much worse.”

Of course, an R rating isn’t entirely a surprise given the franchise’s history. Of the seven Alien films, only one has not received an R. Released in 2004, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Alien vs. Predator was released with a PG-13.

Set as the second chapter in a prequel trilogy that began with Prometheus, Alien: Covenant connects directly to Scott’s 1979 seminal work of science fiction. It begins with the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy. There, the crew discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world — whose sole inhabitant is the “synthetic” David (Michael Fassbender), survivor of the doomed Prometheus expedition.

20th Century Fox will release Alien: Covenant in theaters on October 6, 2017. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are set to reprise their roles as scientist Elizabeth Shaw and the android David, respectively, with Katherine Waterston set to play a woman named Daniels. Jack Paglen (Transcendence) and Michael Green (Green Lantern) are providing the Alien: Covenant screenplay.

You can check out the video of Scott yourself in the player below, courtesy of Screen Slam (via AvPGalaxy).